The ubiquitous Address bar appears at the top of Windows
Explorer and all its related views. Because you see the Address bar so
much, you may take it for granted and not get the most out of its new
features. Let’s fix that by taking a closer look at what the Address bar
offers.1. Accessing Locations on Your Computer
The Address bar displays your current location as a series of
links separated by arrows. This allows you to determine the current
location on your computer, or on your network. File and folder locations
aren’t the only types of locations you can navigate using these
features. You can also navigate Control Panel categories and network
devices.
In the example shown in Figure 1, the location
is:
Computer→Local Disk (C:)→Users→williams
This tells you that the absolute path followed to get to the current location is
C:\Users\williams.
In some cases, you might also see a relative or abbreviated path,
such as when you follow a shortcut or browse to a path that cannot be
fully depicted on the Address bar. As shown in Figure 2, a relative or
abbreviated path is indicated by the left-pointing double-angle
character (<<). In this example, the location is:
« mypictures→Summer Vacation→Islands of Adventure
This tells you that the relative or abbreviated path of the
current location is mypictures\Summer
Vacation\Islands of Adventure.
When you are working with network paths in the Network view of Windows Explorer, as shown in Figure 3, you’ll have quick access to
network locations and shared resources on remote servers. Click the
Network entry in the path to display a list of remote computers and
network resources. Click the name of a remote computer or network
resource to list its shared resources.
Here are the features of the Address bar, from left to
right:
- Forward/Back buttons
The Forward and Back buttons allow you to navigate locations
you’ve already visited. Similar to when you are browsing the Web,
the locations you’ve visited are stored in a location history, and
you can browse the location history by clicking the Forward and
Back buttons.
- Recent Pages button
The Recent Pages button provides a drop-down list of
recently accessed locations. You can jump to a recently accessed
location quickly by clicking the Recent Pages button and then
clicking the desired location. Because the recently accessed
locations are limited to the current session, only locations
you’ve accessed since opening the current Windows Explorer window
are listed.
- Address Path button
The Address Path button shows the absolute or relative path
you are currently accessing and provides options for working with
this path. As discussed next, the Address path includes a Location
Indicator icon, a Path Selection list button, Location Path entries, and a
Previous Locations button.
- Refresh button
The Refresh button refreshes the view. Clicking the Refresh
button displays any updates to contents in the selected
location.
Out of all these features, the one you’ll work with the most is
the Address path. The Address path has four key components, from left to
right:
- Location Indicator icon
The Location Indicator icon depicts the type of resource you
are currently accessing. You’ll see different icons, including
those for disk drives, folders, virtual folders, and so on.
Clicking the Location Indicator icon shows the actual path or
location, such as C:\Users\Williams\Pictures. To restore
the original view, press Esc. You can double-click the icon to
view the same drop-down list provided by the Previous Locations
button.
- Path Selection list button
The Path Selection list button provides access to the
available base locations. Selecting a base location allows you to
quickly access a key Windows Explorer view, such as Control Panel,
Computer, or Desktop.
- Location Path entries
The Location Path shows the absolute or relative path to the
current location. You can access a folder anywhere along the path
that’s displayed by clicking the link for that folder. You can
access a subfolder of any folder displayed by clicking the arrow
to the right of the folder. This displays a list of all folders in
the selected folder, and you can access one of these folders by
clicking it.
- Previous Locations button
This provides a drop-down list of locations you’ve accessed,
which can include file locations, network drive locations, and web
addresses. Unlike the Recent Pages button, the locations listed
can include locations opened in previous Windows Explorer
sessions. You can jump to a recently accessed location quickly by
clicking the Previous Locations button and then clicking the
desired location.
